“Are you okay?” I yelled from inside the shower.
“No, I’m so sick of throwing up,” she replied.
“You poor thing. Go on back to bed and try to get some rest.”
“No, you have to leave in a few hours so I’ll stay up with you.”
I got out of the shower and got myself dressed. Starving, I went into the kitchen where Shelly was sitting at the table looking sicker than I’d ever seen her look.
“We need to talk,” she said.
“Oh shit, those are the words a man never wants to hear. What’s up?”
“I went to the doctor today to try to figure out what’s been wrong with me lately.”
“You did? How come you didn’t tell me?”
“I was trying to wait for the right time. You’ve got so much going on and, with you about to leave, I didn’t want to make you any more stressed than you already are.”
“Fuck that. You’re my priority baby girl. I always want you to come to me no matter what. What did the doctor say?”
“I’m pregnant.”
I nearly spit out the coffee I had just taken into my mouth. I was expecting to hear about some kind of illness but hearing the word pregnant really caught me off guard.
“Pregnant? Are you sure?”
“Very sure. The doctor did a test in his office. I have to go back in four weeks for a checkup.”
“How did this happen?” I asked her.
“Do you need me to draw you a diagram?”
“No, I know how it happened,” I said, realizing how stupid the question had been in the first place. “So, I’m going to be a father? We’re going to be parents?”
“Yes, that’s what typically follows a pregnancy and the subsequent birth.”
Shelly looked at me as though she was trying to read my thoughts on the matter. In all honesty, I wasn’t sure what to think. I had been caught by surprise with the revelation and wasn’t sure what the right reaction should have been. Secretly, I was surprised and happy but didn’t want to act like I was ecstatic. I knew she must have been scared. I leaned over to her and wrapped my arms around her, pulling her close to me.
“I love you and I think we’ll make a great team as parents.”
Shelly smiled and let out a little sigh of relief. Not only had she managed to tell me but I was okay with it. That seemed to make her feel better. The only problem was that I was about to leave and I’d be gone for the majority of the pregnancy.
I hated the fact that I had to leave her. Not only was she going to be my wife but she was also going to be the mother of my first born child. As much as I didn’t want to leave, I knew I had to. Our livelihood was at stake. I knew that with a few good wins, I could make some incredibly large payouts and set my family up for a long time.
Shelly
It took a couple of months but my days of being sick finally passed. I’d heard of people getting morning sickness when they were pregnant but never the entire day. It made me jealous of those that only had to worry about being sick in the morning. I was glad that the sickness had passed but it was replaced with the most wicked heartburn you could imagine. It didn’t matter what I ate, within a half-hour, the heartburn would arrive in full force.
Jason had been gone for about six months but we’d talk on the phone every night. He wasn’t around to go to doctor’s appointments with me but we used FaceTime so he could at least be there virtually. No matter what he was doing or how hard he was training, he’d drop everything so he could be there, listening to everything the doctor had to say and asking lots of questions himself.
During the six months that Jason had been gone, he not only trained with his new team but he also had his first fight with Championship Cage Fighting. Not only was he able to debut earlier than he expected to but it was a co-main event. One of the participants ended getting hurt during training and Jason was called on to take his spot. He accepted the fight with only eleven days’ notice.
He called me and really wanted me to be there, but with the fight being in Las Vegas, I would have had to get on a plane. The last thing I wanted to do while feeling like a house because of my pregnancy was to travel anywhere. Instead, I ordered the fight on pay-per-view and watched him make his debut. His opponent was the heavy favorite but that didn’t mean anything to Jason. He dominated his opponent, knocking him out just over three minutes into the first round, giving Jason his first CCF win and allowing him to make a name for himself.
I didn’t expect to hear from Jason that night since he loves to party after a win. I was taken by surprise when my cell phone rang just after midnight and it was him. Instead of going out to all the after-parties with his new colleagues, he opted to go back to the studio apartment he had been staying in above the gym he trained at so he could talk to me.
“I don’t need to be doing all that partying shit,” he told me when I asked him why he didn’t go out after the fight. “I’m going to be a father and a husband. It’s time to man up. Besides, I gotta get my rest. I’ll be home in two days.”
Those words were music to my ears. I’d missed him so much and I was happy that he was coming back to me. He’d get to be around for the last couple months of my pregnancy and be there when the baby was born. These things were important to both of us.
I’d earned my promotion at work and felt like I was really starting to turn things around at the center. I’d implemented new hiring policies and made sure there were lots of reasons to make sure the good employees wanted to stick around. Everything from hiring bonuses after ninety days and recognition for a job well done. It was working out nicely.
Even though I’d worked hard for my promotion and put my heart and soul into First Hope, I was getting ready to go on maternity leave and had already made the decision that I wasn’t going back. Jason’s payday from his first fight was more than enough to set us up for at least the next year and we already knew that he would fight at least once or twice in that time. This was going to allow me to stay home with the baby.
Since I was going to be staying home, we’d also made arrangements to pull Casey out of First Hope after the baby was born. I’d have a month or so to recover before he got there but it was going to be nice to have him home where he could be cared for around the clock.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Shelly
It was two weeks from my due date and I didn’t have a care in the world. The sickness had been completely gone for quite a while and the heartburn had even started to subside a bit. A lot of my friends who’d had babies before me dealt with cramps and contractions for weeks leading up to when the baby was born. A couple of them had even had to go to the hospital thinking their baby was coming early when they were, in fact, only having false labor pains.
As far as I was concerned, things were looking up and everything should have been smooth sailing from then on. I had no idea exactly how wrong I was.
In the middle of the night, I was jolted awake by a very sharp pain in my stomach. It didn’t last very long but it was intense. It felt like someone had taken a taser, held it against my stomach and pressed the button. It was scary and I worried whether my baby was okay. After a few minutes, I could feel the baby move so I laid back down and was eventually able to fall asleep.
A couple of hours later, it happened again but this time, it lasted a little longer. I had no idea what to do and planned to call the doctor as soon as his office opened in the morning. Unfortunately, these pains didn’t stop. They kept coming and were getting stronger each time it happened. Just before 8:00 in the morning, the pains got to the point where they were almost unbearable. I was starting to get scared so I shook Jason awake.
“What’s wrong, babe?” he asked, still not exactly sure as to where he was.
“It’s my stomach. It hurts really bad.”
“Do you think the baby’s okay?”
“Yeah, I can feel the baby moving around from time to time.”
“All right, do you want to go to the hosp
ital?”
“No, this is probably that false labor that everyone talks about.”
Just seconds after I finished my sentence, I felt a gush between my legs and I was suddenly sitting in a wet bed.
“What the hell?” Jason asked. Yep, now he was awake.
“I think my water just broke.”
“Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit,” Jason yelled as he jumped out of bed and tried to comprehend what he was supposed to be doing. “Hold on, I’ll get dressed super-fast and get you to the hospital.”
I’ve never seen that man move so fast. He didn’t care what he was hearing. He ended up throwing on a pair of pajama pants and a t-shirt that he wore the day before. He helped me up off the bed and guided me towards the car.
“This really hurts,” I complained. “Try not to hit any bumps on the highway.”
Jason nodded his head and jumped into the driver’s seat. He drove as carefully as he could but it still felt like he hit every bump and pothole in the road. Looking over at him, he appeared to be even more nervous than I was, if that was even possible. I thought the doctor may have to look at him before he saw him. If I weren't in so much pain, it would have been funny to see such a big tough guy look like he was on the verge of passing out.
The pains were so intense that I could barely talk. The nurses rushed to put me in a wheelchair before putting me in the elevator and taking me up to the fifth floor. When the doors opened, the sign on the wall said Labor & Delivery.
I was only in the room for a few minutes when I felt a ton of pressure in my pelvis. I didn’t think it was time yet, but I was feeling an intense need to push. At the same time, pushing was the last thing I wanted to do. I was scared, questioning whether or not I was ready to be a mother.
“Go out into the hall and call for the nurse. I need them in here now.”
Jason almost tripped over his own feet trying to get into the hallway.
“Doctor. She needs someone in here. Something’s wrong.”
Two nurses and the doctor came rushing into the room. The doctor felt around between my legs and said something to the nurse, who wheeled a table with some medical instruments on it over to the doctor.
“What’s that? What’s happening?”
“Shelly, you’re about as dilated as you’re going to get. The baby’s head is right there. It’s going to be time to push any second.”
“Push? What do you mean push? This fucking hurts. What about the epidural? At the classes, they said there was an epidural that would make me not have to feel anything. Nobody asked me if I wanted that. I want that.”
“I’m sorry but we’re way past the point where we can give you an epidural. This baby will be out before it would even kick in. What I need you to do is take a deep breath and give me a big push until I say stop.”
At that point, I stopped thinking and just did what the doctor told me to do. I pushed while one of the nurses counted to ten before telling me to relax.
Relax? Who in the fuck were they kidding? How was I supposed to relax?
I just waited for the nurse to tell me it was time to push again and I pushed with all my might. No matter how hard I pushed, it didn’t seem like the baby was moving. I voiced my concern to the doctor only to have him reassure me that things were moving along just as they were supposed to.
The pain was so much worse than anything I’d ever experienced before. I questioned whether or not I was strong enough to take it. It didn’t really matter what I thought because I was living it and I was making it through, even though it was rough. The pain got so bad that I had to let my mind wander. No matter what I was going through, it was all going to be worth it. When it was all said and done, I was going to be holding my little girl or boy in my arms for the first time. After 45 minutes of hard labor, I gave birth to Jason Patrick Stark, Jr. The most beautiful little boy I’d ever laid my eyes on.
Jason
Shelly is a much stronger woman that I would have ever given her credit for. Not only did she endure labor, but she did it without anything to ease the pain of a human exiting her body. I know for a fact that I wouldn’t have been able to do it and that’s coming from a guy who gets punched in the face for a living.
While the nurses were attending to Shelly, the doctor handed me a pair of weird looking scissors and held the baby up to me. I’d heard about it a million times but for some reason, I was dumbfounded as to what I was supposed to do with them.
“What do you want me to do with these?” I asked from behind my surgical mask.
“You’re a new daddy. Cut the umbilical cord.”
I was a new daddy. The sound of his words echoed in my ear as I cut the cord. The nurses were still checking on Shelly so after the baby was cleaned up, he was wrapped in a blanket and handed to me.
I was looking down at the most precious face I had ever seen. I was holding my son. It was just hitting me that I was someone’s father. Sure, I knew that Shelly was pregnant and I knew the baby was coming but that moment was when the reality hit me.
As much as I didn’t want to moment to end, the nurses had to take the baby back to the nursery. I reluctantly handed him over and went to Shelly’s bedside.
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
“I’ll feel a lot better when they give me some pain medicine.”
“You did great, baby girl. I’m proud of you.”
I gave her a kiss on the cheek before going into the hall so I could jump on the phone to let her friends and family know that the baby had arrived. I was sure there’d be plenty of people who were going to be pissed off that I hadn’t called before the birth but they were going to have to get over it. We didn’t have the time to be making phone calls.
By the time I was done with the phone calls, Shelly was being taken back to her room. For the first time, I was able to sit down and take in everything that had just happened. I was a new father but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to enjoy it very long. In just over a week, I was going to have to go back to Chicago to start training for my next fight. I hadn’t signed a contract yet but I told CCF that I wanted to make a name for myself and they said that they’d try to get me on the next card.
I was glad that I was able to make enough money in my first fight for the organization to set my family up for a little while. It was nice to know that they weren’t going to have to worry about anything, especially Shelly having to go back to work.
As if they knew I was thinking about fighting, I got an email alert from my bank that a new deposit had been made. I knew that it was my purse from the fight. Since I won, I got the bigger share of the purse, which was $125,000. When I looked into bank account, my jaw nearly hit the floor. Shelly noticed the look on my face as well.
“What’s the matter?” she asked. “Is everything okay?”
“Uh, I’m not really sure. I just got the deposit from my fight.”
“Oh no, did they screw it up? Was there a bunch of fees taken out that they didn’t tell you about or something?”
“No, nothing like that. There’s $375,000 in here.”
“What?” she roared. “Why did they send so much? That’s got to be a mistake, right?”
“It has to be. Let me run outside and give the office a call.”
I hated to bring the error to their attention but I figured they were bound to find out about it eventually. Besides, I planned on working with these guys for the rest of my time fighting and I wanted them to know that I was honest. I figured someone would have to call me back but the president of the company jumped on the phone to take my call.
“What’s up Jason. What can I do for you?”
“Well, I think somebody messed up when they sent my pay over.”
“Oh no, let me know what was wrong and I’ll get it fixed immediately.”
“Well, there’s $375,000 there. I was only supposed to get $125,000.”
“You haven’t checked your email have you?”
“No, since I got home, I’ve been spending
all my time with my fiance. She actually just gave birth to our first son.”
“Oh man, congratulations. That’s awesome. Anyway, there was no mistake in your pay. You earned two bonuses for your fight. You got the knockout of the night bonus and the fight of the night bonus. It basically tripled your pay. Congratulations buddy.”
“Wow, that’s amazing. You have no idea how much this helps us. Thank you so much.”
The Silencer: A Bad Boy MMA Romance Page 13